The invention relates to the general field of sensors, such as for example sensors for sensing temperature, pressure, movement, etc.
The invention relates more particularly to detecting a short circuit affecting a sensor in an acquisition chain.
A preferred but non-limiting application of the invention thus lies in the field of aviation, in which numerous sensors are used (e.g. on board an aircraft).
In the prior art, there exist techniques for detecting that a simple resistive sensor is affected by a short circuit to a known potential, such as, for example, a short circuit to ground or to the power supply voltage. With that type of sensor, a short circuit to ground or to the power supply voltage gives rise to the resistance of the sensor being measured as zero.
An example implementation of such a technique is described in document US 2006/0036381. In that document, the presence of a short circuit affecting a resistive sensor is determined as a function of the ratio of the sum of the voltages at the terminals of the sensor to the power supply voltage of the sensor.
Such techniques make it possible advantageously to improve the measurements made using such simple resistive sensors, such as resistive temperature sensors in particular, thereby improving the reliability of such sensors.
Nevertheless, for sensors that are more complex, such as sensors having strain-gauge bridges, inductive sensors, or capacitive sensors, it is not possible to apply such detection techniques.
There therefore exists a need for a simple mechanism for detecting a short circuit affecting a sensor in an acquisition chain, which technique is suitable for being applied to a greater variety of sensors.